New Policy in Doctoral Education in Poland. First Conclusions of Implementing Doctoral Schools

ABSTRACT In Poland, doctoral education remained outside the mainstream of public policy interest for many years. The 2018 reform is the first major change in the systemic approach to education at this level. Significant deregulation at the national level has introduced new requirements for conducting doctoral education and the need for its new organisation. The reform aimed to decrease the number of doctoral candidates while enhancing the quality and effectiveness of PhD education. For the first time in history, doctoral education has begun to be subject to a real external evaluation of its quality, too. The legal status of PhD candidates was also redefined, aligning them more closely with young researchers. The 2018 Act granted universities considerable autonomy in organising doctoral schools, resulting in diverse structural solutions and management models. Doctoral education is also influenced by the new rules of scientific evaluation and the instability of rules in this area; financing of the science and higher education sector; and first experience in conducting doctoral schools. The paper analyses the adopted system solutions against the background of policy changes in Europe. It also presents the initial conclusions from the implementation of new systemic solutions.